


Legends and Long-johns

by DoctorV



Series: Archive: Doc's Old-Ass Comics Fic (DC, JLU, etc.) [13]
Category: Booster Gold (Comics), DC Elseworlds, DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Justice League, Justice League International (Comic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Either Way It Was An Accident, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Or Maybe They Just Knocked Out The Baddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-27
Updated: 2005-10-27
Packaged: 2019-04-03 22:37:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14006331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorV/pseuds/DoctorV
Summary: Booster and Ted's plan to lay low once they reach the correct time hits a snag. Also a villain.





	Legends and Long-johns

**Author's Note:**

> Archiving some old old OLD fanfic of mine. This was originally posted to LiveJournal 10/27/2005, with the author's note:  
> "Three words! GAH! Three words away from a thousand word count! *headdesk* (Sad, innit, that I actually tried to figure out how to unobtrusively add three more words just so I'd have an even thousand. Oh the joys of OCD. -_-)  
> Question mark on the prompt because it was sort of backwards: wrote the story, then tried to find a prompt that fit it. So...yeah, that might be changed some time. But not now, 'cause I don't feel like it.  
> Um. Continuation of the wild west AU-of-an-AU (last seen in Like Pirates and The Matrix and Better Seduction Through Science). Have decided the dratted thing is an actual series. Considering calling the series "Whose Time is it Anyway?" because my crazy monkey brain finds it amusing. And before anyone asks, yes. Yes there will be more. God help me, there will be more."
> 
> For the purposes of this actually making sense, the time machine being used is not the see-through sphere Booster usually uses in more recent canon. Or maybe it originally was but fixing it involved making it not see-through. Whatever.
> 
> Added to Ao3 (but backdated): 03/27/2018

Between the two of them, Booster and Ted probably had just enough knowledge for them to pass mostly unnoticed in whatever time they landed in-between their two respective eras. Perhaps they would be viewed as fairly eccentric, but if they kept the time machine well-hidden and kept their heads down, there shouldn't be anything about the pair that would immediately have people pointing and shouting, "Look! Time travelers!"

 

So that was what they were going to do until they could make sense of whatever world they found themselves in.

 

That was the plan, anyway. What actually happened was that they landed in the middle of a fight. Literally.

 

In fact, they landed directly on _top_ of the villain of the day, effectively stopping the fight and landing them in the center of attention.

 

They didn't realize this for some time, however. As the assembled heroes and bystanders tried to figure out the strange object suddenly in their midst, Booster and Ted argued about whether the rough landing and thump they heard meant they had hit something.

 

They were quite startled when their argument was suddenly interrupted by a muffled knocking sound from outside. There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other worriedly. Then Booster cursed with words Ted had never heard and Ted adjusted his goggles over his eyes.

 

"You have your blasters?" Ted asked, checking the pistol he had brought and making sure it was actually loaded. He didn't know if he had remembered to do that before they left, and he wasn't sure he'd remembered to pack bullets.

 

Booster flexed his hands. "Yep."

 

"Force field?"

 

Booster checked, then looked up. "Yep."

 

Ted motioned to the time machine's exit. "You first," he said magnanimously.

 

Rolling his eyes, Booster cautiously eased the door open and peeked out. Nearby was a tall, muscular man in blue and red spandex with an "S" on his chest. He was floating several feet above the ground.

 

Booster ducked his head back in the time machine and hissed at Ted, "It's Superman!"

 

Staring back blankly, Ted asked, "Who?"

 

"Who?" Booster repeated in disbelief. " _Superman._ It's...it's _Super. Man!_ "

 

"I don't know who that is!" Ted snapped. "I think maybe he's a little after my time."

 

"He's...." Booster gestured helplessly for a moment, then threw up his hands. "Superman!"

 

"Excuse me?" a voice called politely from outside.

 

Booster froze. Then, slowly, he opened the door all the way and peered out. The first thing he saw was Superman, furrowing his brow in confusion, shiny black spitcurl curled over it. The second thing he saw, upon glancing down, was a pair of shiny red boots poking out from beneath the time machine and small crater it had created.

 

Neither Booster nor Ted had ever seen "The Wizard of Oz" in any form, so Superman and everyone else assembled was spared a potentially inappropriate and _pun_ -ishing improv comedy routine from the duo. Later on, after seeing the movie, the pair would lament this missed opportunity.

 

Instead, Booster merely glanced back in the time machine at Ted and grimaced. "You were right," he said. "We hit something."

 

* * *

 

The clean-up of the site of the battle soon followed, with Booster and Ted both vocalizing loud concerns and protests over the safety of the time machine. The fashion-challenged Green Lantern charged with the care and handling of the machine vocalized back just as loud and eventually Superman had to intervene before it came to blows. Soon after, the pair was separated and interrogated.

 

Booster's claims to be from the future were met with surprise and interest. His mention that Ted was from the past was met with some hostility.

 

Repeating all the excuses he'd used to convince himself that removing Ted from his natural time was a good idea, Booster concluded with a slightly sulky, "Besides, if I hadn't shown up when I did, he probably would've ended up blowing himself up within a year."

 

He glared down at the tabletop, unwilling to meet the disapproving gazes of legends.

 

Ted's interrogation was different. He got the feeling early on that they saw him as some sort of victim of a charismatic, time-traveling abductor. An ignorant fool from the past swept up in a whirlwind of futuristic charm.

 

That pissed him off.

 

A lot.

 

Unlike Booster, Ted did not see himself surrounded by the living embodiments of myths and legends. Ted saw a bunch of people in silly costumes that looked like either underwear or something worn by circus folk. And even circus folk had their limits.

 

So instead of being at all humbled or awed, Ted was trying his best not to burst out laughing right in their serious faces.

 

He was sure the man in the pointy ears and the black cape was supposed to be grim and intimidating, but Ted's mind kept wandering to thoughts of whether the ears were as sharp as they looked and speculations on what was contained in the belt's various compartments. As he started thinking up more and more ridiculous and improbable belt contents, he was mostly ignoring the questions aimed at him and biting the insides of his mouth to keep from grinning.

 

"Kord!" the man snapped, startling him from his musings.

 

" _What?_ " Ted asked irritably.

 

"Did you hear what I asked?"

 

Ted grimaced. "Look, if you're worried I'm not back in my own time settling down with some nice girl and having a brood of little Ted juniors, it's doubtful that ever would've happened anyway." He gave the man a small, self-depreciating smile and shrugged. "To be honest, if Booster hadn't shown up when he did, I probably would've blown myself up within a year."

 

There wasn't much they could say to argue with that, and any attempts were pointedly ignored by the two.

 

In the end, they were offered rooms to stay in at the Watchtower.

 

After a bit of embarrassed foot-shuffling and avoidance of eye-contact, they were offered a room to share.


End file.
